An ‘irregular’ house not built according to Puerto Rico codes in Villa Esperanza. It was damaged by Hurricane Maria. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Gladys Peña built a home the way many thousands of people in Puerto Rico, maybe most, did for decades: in makeshift fashion. Every week for years, Peña, a cafeteria cook, set money aside until she had enough to buy a vacant wooden shack in a densely packed working-class barrio, a one-time squatters’ community a short stroll from the towers of San Juan’s Golden Mile financial district. She knocked down most of the flimsy...

Florida Power & Light Co. said Tuesday it will use its federal tax savings under the new tax law to wipe out $1.3 billion in Hurricane Irma-related costs. As a result, FPL’s typical monthly residential bill would drop to $99.37 from the current $102.72, according to the utility. Without Irma storm surcharges of $4 to $5.50 monthly until 2020, FPL said its 4.9 million customers would save an average of $250. FPL had planned to start collecting a new storm charge in March and later ask Florida’s Public Service Commission to approve additional charges until the electric grid restoration bill...

A New York Democratic assemblywoman was indicted Tuesday for allegedly defrauding government agencies out of tens of thousands of dollars, including the agency in charge of Hurricane Sandy relief. The Department of Justice announced that 'Pamela Harris',57, a New York state assemblywoman, was charged with wire fraud, making false statements, bankruptcy fraud, witness tampering and obstructing justice. The indictment also claims that when Harris learned that law enforcement was investigating her in 2017, she pushed witnesses to lie for her to FBI agents conducting the investigation. “She conducted her schemes victimizing the federal and New York City governments, and then...

MOROVIS, Puerto Rico – Three days before Christmas, Doris Martinez and daughter Miriam Narvaez joined their neighbors in a line outside city hall in Morovis, a town of 30,000 people still living without electricity in the mountains of central Puerto Rico a month after Hurricane Maria battered the U.S. island. They waited two hours under the searing sun for their twice-a-week handout — 24 bottles of water and a cardboard box filled with basic foods such as tortillas, canned vegetables and cereal. Martinez, a 73-year-old cancer survivor, balanced the water atop the food and picked her way up a steep...

When Hurricane Irma hit Florida in September, it claimed the lives of 134 people and laid waste to $65 billion worth of property. But for Republicans here, it was another hurricane that could wreck their chances of future electoral success. Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico two weeks after Irma, wiping out much of the island’s drinking water and power grid, and prompting thousands of Puerto Ricans to flee the island. More than 140,000 have landed in Florida so far, and the vast majority are expected to remain in the Sunshine State. The influx of Puerto Ricans...

The Puerto Rican governorÂ’s office put out a call for mainland commercial drivers willing to help. Unfortunately, the capacity of bureaucrats to stifle selfless service is disturbingly strong. By Patrick Weingart By Patrick WeingartNovember 27, 2017 It is not often volunteer opportunities arise that seem so tailored to your skills that they appear to call you by name. This was my experience recently with respect to Puerto Rico and Hurricane Maria. Unfortunately, my efforts since the beginning of October have yet to be successful and may have been in vain.After a deployment to Afghanistan with the Marine Corps between 2010...

America’s health care system is facing a potential crisis, and it has nothing to do with Obamacare, opioids or veterans’ care. The potential crisis stems from a shortage of those ubiquitous IV solution bags used in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice settings, and are ever-present in TV dramas as fictitious patients are lifted for ambulatory services. The problem has become particularly acute since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, home to Baxter International Inc., the biggest supplier of the bags and one of America’s key suppliers. The bags are used to provide intravenous fluids such as: life-saving medications, painkillers, antibiotics, chemotherapy...

They are the last remaining heroes of the glorious Few, whose daring and bravery saved Britain from Nazi tyranny. Of the dwindling band of men, who were part of the near 3,000-strong aircrew who served with the RAF Fighter Command between July 10 and October 31 1940, just eight surviving members of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association remain. Many of the men were still teenagers or in their early 20s when they repelled Hitler's Luftwaffe in what may be the most important battle this country has ever fought.

Congressional leaders from both sides of the isle defended the Jones Act’s impact on hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico during a hearing this week exploring initial lessons learned from the 2017 hurricanes and key challenges and obstacles that may remain in the way of recovery. The House Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing Wednesday on “Emergency Response and Recovery: Central Takeaways from the Unprecedented 2017 Hurricane Season” during which Congressman John Rutherford (R-FL) and Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR) highlighted the importance of the American maritime industry for Puerto Rico recovery and the capacity and capability of...

America’s economy defied the impact of two massive hurricanes to record a 3 percent growth in the third quarter of 2017. As a candidate, President Donald Trump repeatedly said he wanted to achieve growth of 3 percent or higher. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the GDP report “proves that President Trump’s bold agenda is steadily overcoming the dismal economy inherited from the previous administration. … And as the president’s tax cut plan is implemented our entire economy will continue to come roaring back,” according to The Associated Press.

My reporting on the hurricane recovery effort in Puerto Rico would not be complete without mention of my roommate on the trip — Rep. Luis Gutierrez. In an admittedly unorthodox decision, the Chicago congressman and I shared a hotel room and rental car to reduce the logistical difficulties of following him around to hurricane-damaged locations on the island. I learned Gutierrez is probably more popular in Puerto Rico than in Chicago because of his advocacy on the island’s behalf in Congress, which gets him more media attention there than here. Everywhere we went, random people wanted to chat him up,...

Video at link and it's 11:06 minutes long. This vlogger was pretty good in past predictions. He was generally first to discuss the last hurricane when it was still a tropical storm. In this video, he discusses wind patterns and a tropical disturbance that may become a hurricane and if so, that it will be named Phillipe. He notes that the details surrounding the formation and projected track of the disturbance are strikingly similar to the formation of hurricane Sandy. He notes that there is currently only a 40% chance that the disturbance will become a storm.

80 percent of Puerto Rico is without power, a result of extensive damage to an already seriously deficient electrical grid. It is expected to take months to fix, and in the meantime, water and sewer systems that rely on electricity for pumping remain compromised.

The Media’s Smallest Genocide in Puerto Rico The fake news genocide falls apart. October 18, 2017 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. The Mayor of San Juan recently took a break from her tour of every cable news network on the planet to text an accusation of genocide aimed at President Trump. "WE WILL NOT BE LEFT TO DIE,” Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz texted. “I ask the United Nations, UNICEF and the world to stand with the people of Puerto...

NO CLIMATE scientist could be surprised by Hurricane Ophelia. In 2013, the scientific journal ‘Geophysical Research Letters’ explained how more hurricanes would hit western Europe as warming Atlantic waters increase the area in which such storms can exist. Ophelia is exactly the kind of storm we expected from burning fossil fuels, thickening our atmosphere with greenhouse gases and contributing to climate change. More energy in the atmosphere means more energy in the oceans too, and that helps to create stronger, wider reaching hurricanes like Ophelia, Irma and Harvey. The urgency to address climate change has never been more apparent, yet...

PORT ARTHUR, Texas (AP) — Jefferson County, Texas, was drowned by more than 60 inches of rain during Hurricane Harvey, which left wide swaths of the county in ruins. Last November, Jefferson flipped from voting Democratic in presidential elections to instead back Donald Trump, who has dismissed the concept of climate change as a hoax and has worked to undo regulations meant to mitigate its damage. Scientists say climate change doesn’t cause hurricanes but that warming and rising seas supercharge those already forming. Some who lost everything in Harvey’s floodwaters say they’re starting to take the threat of climate change...

Bill Clinton was pictured in Dublin's city center during Hurricane Ophelia Excited locals took selfies with the former US president while he was sightseeing The 71-year-old seemed to be ignoring the government's advice to stay indoors While he was enjoying his day as a tourist, Hillary was giving interviews with a broken toe in the the United Kingdom....